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Tribe issues first marijuana payment to city

Amy Alonzo, Mason Valley News
Published 8:38 a.m. PT June 6, 2018

A patron looks at products at Pesha' Numma Dispensary during its February opening.(Photo: Christian Champagne, special to the Mason Valley News)

The city of Yerington reaped its first financial rewards from the Yerington Paiute Tribe’s Pesha’ Numma Dispensary.

The tribe gave just over $3,300 in payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) to the city of Yerington June 1, according to Tribal Chairwoman Laurie Thom. The payment covers the dispensary’s first 45 days in operation, and the tribe plans to make a second payment to the city in July, she said.

The PILT money comes from a 2.6 percent sales tax charged on purchases made by non-tribal members. Thom said the tribe also included an additional 0.4 percent in revenue to the city with the request that it go to the Yerington Police Department.

The dispensary opened in February on tribal land located on Bridge Street after the tribe and city entered into a five-year compact in October. The compact prohibits the city from allowing another dispensary to open in Yerington, and, in exchange, the city will collect PILT revenue on non-tribal sales.

Thom said about 60 percent of the dispensary’s customers are non-natives, and that about 60 percent are age 60 or older.

“It’s not the young hip we’re gonna get high group, it’s the medicinal users,” she said. “So many people have gone in, and they are so grateful. People have talked to me personally about how having a dispensary in the location we put it, one gentleman said we saved his life, he had no transportation to get to Carson or Reno.”

City Manager Dan Newell said he has not noticed any problems with the dispensary since it opened.

“Not that I know of,” he said. “I haven’t heard a word from anybody.”

The tribe also plans to operate a grow site in the area. The tribe put down earnest money on a 21-acre site owned by Marathon Equipment Co. so that the land could be annexed into the city. It was annexed in May and was considered a possible grow site by the tribe. However, Thom said there may be changes in compact language by the department of taxation that would cause the tribe to reconsider using the Marathon property, and that the tribe would then consider growing on reservation land.